Timeless - Recap

At a park, a boy plays with his dog and tosses his Frisbee to it. When the dog goes into the woods after it, the boy goes in and finds a woman's corpse.

Carl and Perri go to the morgue to talk to Dr. Aaron Shields, the head coroner, about the dead woman, Jennifer Owens. Shields claims that Owens died of exposure but in the background, Carl's contact Alex Nyby is shaking his head in the negative. Going over the report, Carl observes that Jennifer's face was partially eaten away all the way into the brain cavity, and the bite mark is larger then any local animal. As they leave, they meet with Alex in secret who tells them that Shields is either lying or unimaginative.

Carl and Perri collect Jain and go talk to Jennifer's mother, and she insists that the death wasn't accident. She's suspicious because Jennifer wore an antique necklace that wasn't on the corpse.

Marlene Shields, an attractive woman in her late 40s, is at home and preparing to go out on a date. Her son is Dr. Shields, and they talk briefly until her date Hugh arrives. Dr. Shields notices that his mother is wearing an antique necklace.

The next day, Dr. Shields calls Carl and Perri back and tells them that he decided to examine the corpse more closely and found a needle mark concealed by a freckle. They're checking for poison after an initial negative check. Perri and Carl then talk to Alex, who tells them he found the needle mark and Shields took the credit. None of them can explain why the killer used a hypodermic injection to kill Jennifer and then bash her head in.

Hugh comes to visit Marlene at her home and he waits in the next room while she changes for their date. They talk about her son Dr. Shields but Hugh sneaks a peek into her room and sees that she's actually wrinkled and scarred, and wears a wig and uses dentures. He ducks back as she comes out... and she's made up beautifully.

Perri is bothered by Jennifer's death, while Carl wonders what kind of animal would chew into its victims brain. Jain arrives and tells them he's been working with the Beacon's archiver, Titus Berry, and they've discovered that a similar set of three killings took place in November 1970. The police never found out who was responsible.

Dr. Shields confronts his mother over Jennifer's death, but Marlene is calm and assures him that she'll take care of it and that she's doing it so the two of them can be together.

Perri checks on Jennifer's background and determines she worked for Harmon Realtors. Marlene runs the realtor firm and Perri meets with her at an open house. Drawn to Perri's flawless complexion, Marlene prepares to inject her with a hypodermic in her pocket, but a couple arrive to see the house and Perri leaves without noticing she was in danger.

Carl talks to Detective Collins, the now-retired officer who investigated the murders in 1970. Collins confirms that the women were paralyzed with an injection and subsequently killed. They narrowed down the drug to a doctor named Luke Russell, but the suspect killed himself with a gunshot to the face and they closed the case when the killings stopped. Carl wonders if that was truly the end of it.

Back at the Beacon they meet with Titus who reveals that there was another set of three similar deaths in 1935. They go back to 1900 and find another identical set of murders, meaning that if it's the same killer he's 115 years old. They convince Collins to use his contacts on the force to get Russell's corpse exhumed. Alex notes that the signs indicate that Russell was shot from a distant rather then from a self-inflicted wound. They conclude Russell was murdered and set up as a suspect, and Shields starts to panic.

Marlene is playing cards with Hugh and he tells her about what he saw earlier, but how it doesn't matter to him and he loves her just as she is. Touched, she says she never wants him to leave her.

Perri goes to dinner with her parents while Carl meets with Shields, who shows him another woman's corpse. It had been misfiled for the last month and just now discovered. Which means there's still one more victim left for the killer. Shields then goes to confront his mother, saying he knows she killed Russell and will murder him next. She tries to comfort him, explaining that Russell was her son and she used him to get the paralytic drug, then killed him when he started to have regrets. Now she plans to set up Hugh as the new killer.

Perri has dinner with her parents and talks about how she's been considering how easy it is to die and that she regrets not spending more time with them. She and her father, a doctor, start discussing the case and Mr. Reed suggests that the killer consumed the pituitary gland from the brain, and that primitive tribes consider the gland a way to regain youth and sexual energy. Mrs. Reed is less then amused at the dinner-time topic. Perri then gets a call... from Marlene, who invites her over so she can provide the reporter with new information.

Carl and Alex go over the morgue files and discover that Shields deliberately misfiled the first victim's corpse. They try to call Perri at her house but discover she's left, and Carl figures she went to see Marlene. He gets Dr. Shields' address from the files and heads out.

When Perri arrives at the Shields house, Marlene injects her with the paralytic and prepares to eat her pituitary gland while Dr. Shields looks on, unable to do anything against his mother. Perri manages to struggle and knocks off Marlene's wig, then staggers away. She finds Hugh, dead and set up to look like he killed himself, then finally collapses. Marlene approaches her, removing her dentures and revealing razor sharp teeth. However, before she can kill Perri, Dr. Shields finally makes a decision... and shoots her dead.

In the aftermath, the police take away Dr. Shields and Carl comforts Perri. Scattered throughout the house are photos of Marlene... over a hundred years old.

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